Swiss community connection and/or involvement:

Since 2019 I am a Member of SwissCham. Through my professional activities we started to build a teaching interaction between Nestlé and UNSW. In 2024 the CEO of Nestlé Oceania gave a guest lecture to food science students. Moreover, we are building a collaboration with Swiss based Sail & Explore Association to address microplastics in sea water and food. Finally, by now we have many Swiss Friends in Australia.

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Profile/Motivation:

I am Professor of Food & Health at UNSW Sydney. I earned my Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Max-Planck-Institute of Nutrition Physiology, Germany, studying bacterial proton transport. A Human Frontiers award brought me to UCLA’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute to study cellular nutrition and membrane transport. 

In 2000, I joined Nestlé Research in Lausanne, where I established the taste program, advancing Nestlé’s leadership in taste perception. I initiated large-scale global research, bridging private and public sectors. As the founding Field Chief Editor of ‘Frontiers in Nutrition’, a Swiss-based journal, I continue shaping food science. 

Now at UNSW, I focus on cellular agriculture and food security while maintaining strong ties to Swiss research initiatives in food and health. I have been involved with the Parliamentary inquiry into food security, which resulted in the Australian Food Story: Feeding the Nation and Beyond.

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See also: Linkedin